Bobby Robins is tired. He won’t come out and say it
explicitly, but the sound of his voice tells you that this is
someone who hasn’t gotten much sleep lately.

It’s not because of hockey
either, even though the Providence Bruins are coming off of their
first weekend of the season with three games in three days. The
Bruins went undefeated, outscoring their opponents 19-7, including
a Sunday matinee against the Hartford Wolf Pack where the two teams
combined for a whopping 168 penalty minutes.

Robins wasn’t part of any
of the five fights between the two teams, nor did he account for
any of Providence’s 73 penalty minutes. This should come as a
bit of a surprise, especially since the P-Bruins’ enforcer
dropped the gloves with his opponents 39 times during the 2012-13
season. But on this Sunday, Robins’ name was nowhere to be
found on the scoresheet.

Robins, in fact, wasn’t
even in the game at all. Robins was with his wife, about to become
a father. “It’s just kind of crazy how that
works,” Robins said. “In a game like that, where
I’m sure I’d be right in the middle of things and going
to war with my teammates, I’m bringing my daughter into the
world.”

It’s a challenge that
Robins is ready for, not unlike those he typically accepts when
he’s on the ice.

“Life changes now where
it’s not just about me anymore,” Robins said days after
the birth of his daughter. “I just have this overwhelming
feeling to do my best to raise my daughter and impart all of the
wisdom and knowledge I’ve acquired over 32 years to prepare
her for life in this world. I feel this great sense of motivation
to accomplish my goals every time I look at her, and I owe it to
her to give it everything I have to make the most out of my life so
that I can make her life even better.”

Robins knows a thing or two
about motivation and playing against the odds. A graduate of
UMass-Lowell, Robins bounced around playing professional hockey in
Europe, in the ECHL and with five different AHL clubs. He’s
no goal scorer, or playmaker. He’s not a stand-up defenseman
or faceoff specialist. He’s an enforcer, a player who has a
specific skill-set. Unfortunately, these players aren’t
usually the first to be noticed by a club.

He was finally able to stick
with the Providence Bruins after being called up in December 2011
and has been with the team since his roller-coaster ride of the
beginning of his career.

“I hit a really dark spot in my life and I was at rock
bottom,” Robins said, referencing an addiction to chewing
tobacco that he was able to kick. “I really made an effort to
chase my goals and play in the NHL. In four years, I said to
myself, ‘I’m going to make myself the best version of
me I can, and I’m going to be the best person I can be, the
best hockey player I can be and do all of the right things to get
me to that spot.’ “

Four years later, here he is,
just four months removed from signing his first NHL contract, a
two-year, two-way deal with the Boston Bruins.

“I knew I was going to be
a long shot and that it was going to be a really difficult
road,” Robins said. “I just kept clawing away. It
seemed like when I got that call-up to Providence a couple of years
ago, it just showed me that, ‘Wow, somebody’s paying
attention’ and all of this effort that I had been putting
into this dream is starting to come to fruition.”

The Providence Bruins and Robins
seemed like a match right away — two parties that needed the
other to succeed.

“We were a young group and
(Robins) made us all a little taller, a little bigger,” said
Providence Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy on the arrival of Robins
in 2011. “Before you know it, it rubbed off and we became a
little harder to play against. He’s a real good leader in
that aspect.”

Last season with Providence,
Robins led the AHL with 316 penalty minutes, cementing his role as
an energy player who knows what his on-ice responsibility is.
He’s a fighter, an enforcer who can take a beating like no
other while shelling out some jabs and hooks of his own. It’s
his job to send a message, change the pace of the game and protect
his teammates.

Robins is aware of his job
description. He calls it “his brand of hockey.”
It’s what makes him an asset to the team.

“I’m just a guy
who’s out there playing and working as hard as I can,”
Robins said. “I always felt the need to stick up for somebody
who’s getting picked on and stick up for my teammates. I
enter the hockey game with a war-like mentality where for the next
two or three hours, I’m going to war and giving it everything
I have physically and mentally, really exhausting myself and laying
it all the line, playing with passion and fury.”

So why is it that he’s
nothing like his tough-guy, on-ice persona once the skates come
off?

Because Bobby Robins is
different.

“Bobby’s a very
positive guy,” said Cassidy, who named Robins one of
Providence’s assistant captains this season. “He walks
in the locker room and is always in a good mood, head up, chatting
with his teammates. You can’t have enough of those guys in
the locker room. He’s a big personality without being loud,
and that’s what you like about him.”

“When the game’s
done, whether I got into fight, made some checks or was just an
aggressive player, I’m able to step back from that,”
Robins said. “Off the ice, I’m a pretty mellow guy, and
I’m able to realize that’s my job and that’s my
job description. Especially now, with raising a family, and I have
a wife and child, I’m able to step back from that and become
a peaceful man off of the ice.”

Robins’ demeanor is most
seen on his personal blog that he frequently posts in. The entries
range from advice on nutrition to personal accounts of his life in
hockey so far, all of which contains Robins’ prose —
eloquent and tastefully written and incredibly transparent for a
professional athlete. His posts give fans another form of access
that is usually restricted.

“I don’t know why I
like to write,” Robins said. “I don’t know why my
writing seems to strike a chord with people, but for some reason, I
have been given this gift. To be able to share it with fans and
readers, I look at it as me being able to fulfill my duty, because
I have that gift.”

So maybe it’s ironic for
someone like Robins to write about Zen and the art of finding
one’s self. Or maybe it’s the other way around.
Regardless, Robins walks a fine line between his job description on
the ice and the person he is deep down. For him, it’s about
the message he sends as a person.

“I’m trying to make
this world a better place while I’m here, as corny as that
sounds, doing anything I can to spread some positivity,”
Robins said. “If I’ve been able to help anybody, think
more positively or feel better, then that’s really all I can
ask for, and that’s why I do it.”

All that’s left for
Robins’ feel-good story is a call-up to Boston. After missing
the first two weeks of the AHL season due to a knee injury, the
momentum is on his side to pick up where he left off last season
and continue to be a role player in Providence.

But really, Robins has already
accomplished everything he wanted. He’s back playing
professional hockey in the AHL, is one of the most popular players
Providence has seen in some time, and is new father. His team is
coming off a gritty win, where his presence was felt even though he
wasn’t on the ice. He’s doing exactly what he should
be, inspiring the younger P-Bruins and being someone his teammates
look up to.

“It’d be a great story if he’d be able to get
up to Boston and contribute in some way, shape, or form,”
Cassidy said. “I know I’m rooting for him as much as
anybody.”